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A star-explosion mystery that puzzled astronomers for more than two decades has finally been solved.

Researchers using data gathered by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have determined that the supernova SN 1993J — which was first observed in 1993, as its name suggests — occurred because one star nabbed hydrogen from another.

“This is like a crime scene, and we finally identified the robber," study co-author Alex Filippenko, a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement. "The companion star stole a bunch of hydrogen before the primary star exploded."